Comments
The proposed modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports through private sector participation has been put on hold. A decision to this effect was taken on July 22 at a high-powered meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, told newspersons here on Wednesday: “The proposal for Chennai and Kolkata has been dropped. At the meeting it was decided that Ahmedabad and Jaipur will be taken up in a pilot mode by involving the private sector. We are looking at operation and management of these two airports along with the private sector.”
The Minister declined to get into specifics of what the “operation and management” of Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports will be.
A senior Civil Aviation Ministry official said that the existing Request for Proposal from interested parties to put in bids to be considered for qualification to participate in the process of modernisation of these four airports will soon be withdrawn. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had extended the last date for those interested in participating in the bidding process to put in their request for being qualified till August 31.
Incidentally, the decision to extend the last date for the bidding process till August 31 was the fifth successive delay with the original deadline of March 24 being extended to May 26 and then to July 1 and August 1.
Sharma insisted that now there will be no delay in modernising Jaipur and Ahmedabad but declined to give a time frame by when the new proposals will be out.
Unlike previously, the Government could now insist that an airport operator be part of the consortium bidding for Ahmedabad and Jaipur. This was, however, not mandated in the Request for Proposal which is valid till August.
A PTI report adds: The government expects to finalise the revised draft civil aviation policy by the first week of September, a senior official said.
The new policy which has been in the works for quite sometime is anticipated to focus on improving air connectivity apart from possible changes in overseas flying norms for local carriers. Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey said the draft policy is expected to be put up for public comments by first week of September.
The inter-ministerial consultations are taking time and there is nothing problematic, he added.
Among others, the draft policy proposes to enhance regional air connectivity, rationalise jet fuel cost, promote air cargo, maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) and helicopter operations and improve passenger facilitation.
The government also plans to revise the 5/20 norms, whereby domestic airlines are required to have at least five years operational experience and minimum 20 planes to fly overseas.
The draft policy was initially unveiled in November 2014 and after taking into consideration the comments and suggestions received, the Ministry is looking at certain modifications to it.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.